I'm deducting a star for my most recent experience. I recently took two friends to Target World. On our way out of the range area, one of the employees pulled us back in to claim that we had hit the carrier twice. Now, three of us were shooting on one lane (so I didn't personally check the placement of every round) we were all tall and had the targets hung a bit high, one of us closed out aiming for the "head" region of his target, and I had one round that was a little off after the weapon failed to fire on the previous shot attempt... It's, I suppose, possible that someone among us hit the metal clip. However, the "evidence" we were shown were two little marks, one of which I had seen before we started shooting (and I hadn't exactly been inspecting). Those cost $30, none of which am I sure we actually owed, and half of which I'm pretty sure we didn't. In and of itself, that's irritating, but it happens, and I didn't bother questioning it at the time, so I can let that go. What followed, though, was bizarre.
We were told that there's a store upstairs and that shooting a bit high could result in a round going through the floor and killing someone. Now, this is untrue on pretty much every front. A round that nicks the bottom of the metal clip that holds up the target isn't going to hit the ceiling. No part of the upstairs store is actually located in line with a shot that would plausibly be taken at the range, and obviously ranges are constructed so that bullets don't fly through their walls. I know this and I'm not a first time shooter, so I could just roll my eyes, but there are people who could be put into a complete panic by such absurd claims. Then, we were pulled to a different lane to see the mark left by a round that someone had fired sideways (almost perpendicular to the range). I fully agree that shooting at a 90 degree angle from the range is horribly reckless... But I don't really see the parallels between that and someone accidentally firing three inches above the target (if any of us even actually did so). We were then treated to a lecture about how if that sideways shooter had been firing a different weapon with different ammo and there had been a guy at the lane beside him who had been leaning over the counter in a way that he shouldn't have been, a round could have punctured the bullet-resistant divider and hit him in the head. First, this very clearly had nothing to do with anything we were even alleged to have done. Second, an employee who's in a panic about what hypothetically might have happened if someone's irresponsible actions had been committed using an illicit weapon and illicit ammo while someone else was simultaneously behaving strangely might not be someone who's psychologically equipped to work at a shooting range. And, finally, exposing the wrong customer to that could seriously, unnecessarily upset them.
There's a significant difference between being safety conscious (which, if you see my original review, you'll see I appreciate) and being unreasonably panicky, which just leads to more of the irrational behavior that can make a range dangerous. I have appreciated Target World for its level-headed staff who know how to make customers, and especially their safety, a priority. This time, I got the opposite of level headed. The rest of the staff seemed to have it together, so I think that this was more an aberration than a new norm, but I don't think that "disturbing" is an unreasonable word to use to describe this most recent experience. read more